What are some ideas regarding the question of intentional tort in case study?

The question, paraphrased, is a request for some examples of intentional torts which may be illustrated through case studies.

To start, the definition of "tort" in general, is:

"a civil wrong which may be redressed by the awarding of damages."

The Cornell site from which this definition was taken provides an excellent summary of types of torts and relevant law.  The concept of tort is centered around the causing of harm to someone, either physical harm, damage to their property or reputation, or financial loss to them.  As such, intentional torts are those where you knew that harm was to be caused by your action, and in fact the desire to cause harm was your motivation for the action.  Other types of tort are negligent (you didn't want harm to occur, but you should have known it would happen) and strict liability (the law has decided that responsibility for a certain result will lay upon a specific party in certain situations).

Also note that the concept of tort is related to civil law, as opposed to criminal law.  In tort lawsuits, awards can be intended to compensate the victim as well as to punish the wrong-doer, but in either case the victim (plaintiff) gets to keep the awarded amounts.  Conversely, under criminal law, penalties of jail, probation, and/or fines are levied on the wrong-doer, but money from fines in general go to the government ("society" at large) rather than the victim.

A good case study might be the events surrounding the O. J.Simpson murder trial.  Even though the criminal proceedings did not result in conviction or jail time for Mr. Simpson, the ensuing civil lawsuits for the tort of killing Mrs. Simpson and Ron Goldman were successful. This highlights another aspect to address in a good case study, namely that the rules governing civil suits are different from those governing criminal trials.  A nice summary of these can be found in the law.freeadvice.com reference below.

Why was waltzing with his father "not easy" for the narrator in "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke?

Waltzing is "not easy" for the boy in "My Papa's Waltz" because of the fear he has of his father.

The waltz in "My Papa's Waltz" could be seen as difficult because of the size difference between father and son. The "small boy" hangs on to his father "like death."  With this height disparity, "such waltzing was not easy." However, a darker vision might exist.  Many interpretations of the poem suggest that "My Papa's Waltz" depicts an abusive relationship between the father and his son. This makes the waltz physically and emotionally difficult for the boy.

As he begins the dance, the father's state makes it difficult.  The boy notes how "the whiskey" on his papa's breath "could make a small boy dizzy."  That represents one level of difficulty in the dance.  The father's inebriated state causes him to spin the boy and have no regard for the objects around them. This is why both father and son "romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf."  

The father's physical force is so strong that the boy experiences a scraped ear from his father's buckle with every step he missed.   It is as if the father is "dancing" his abuse towards the son.  The father's "battered" hand "beat time" on the little boy's head with a "palm caked hard by dirt."  The father's "waltz" is an exercise in displaying power over the boy. The emotional difficulty of this dance is confirmed with how the mother's facial expression "could not unfrown itself" as she watches the spectacle unfold.  

This waltz is difficult because the father is a towering and dominating figure. He revels in his abusive display of power.  The boy is terrified as he clings to his father's shirt.  There is little chance he enjoys this nightly tradition.  The boy's fear of his father and the pain he experiences during this dance make it emotionally and physically difficult.  Such a realization underscores how this dance "is not easy."

When is Jem shown to have changed in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

Jem reaches one of his greatest moments of change after Mrs. Dubose's death in chapters 11 and 12 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

In Chapter 11, Jem is worn down by all the ridicule he faces for Atticus's decision to defend Tom Robinson. He is so worn down that he flies into a violent rage the moment Mrs. Dubose insults the children by saying, "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" (Ch. 11). As punishment for his having whacked all the camellias off of the bushes in her garden, Jem is made to read to her daily. The night of her death, Atticus explains he would have asked Jem to read to Mrs. Dubose regardless because Atticus knew she had been working on ridding herself of her morphine addiction, developed due to her illness, before she passed away, and Atticus knew reading to her would distraction her from her withdrawal symptoms. Since Atticus had known she was working on ridding herself of her morphine addiction, regardless of how warranted morphine use was due to the pain she suffered, Atticus explains he saw Mrs. Dubose as a "great lady" because she was such a courageous woman. Atticus further explains he had wanted Jem to see that true courage is more than just being aggressive:

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. (Ch. 11)

After this lesson of what courage is and that to be a great lady is to be courageous, Jem begins changing a great deal. He especially changes in his treatment of Scout. Whereas before he used to insult her by calling her a girl, now he gets annoyed anytime she does something tomboyish and shouts at her, "It's time you started bein' a girl and acting right!" (Ch. 12). Jem's behavior towards others also becomes gentler, just like his father's behavior. For example, soon after Tom Robinson's trial and death, just as Scout is about to squash a roly-poly bug one night, Jem stops her, saying, "Don't do that, Scout. Set him out on the back steps," which Scout feels is uncharacteristic of Jem (Ch. 25). But, Jem's new behavior reflects all he has learned about courage and showing respect for others.

What is an example of alliteration in Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"?

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a series of words. This technique can give a poetic line rhythm or musical quality as well as stress important meanings in the poem. In Pound's poem, he uses alliteration in the second line: "Petals on a wet, black bough." The repetition of the "b" with "black" and "bough" is alliterative. 

This is an Imagist poem. And this simply means the poet tried to create an image without any superfluous or unnecessary rhetorical language. Pound wrote it about a succession of beautiful faces he'd seen upon leaving the London subway. Collectively, they seem like apparitions or ghosts. As he looks quickly from one to the next, he sees one and then it is gone, and so on. It's as if, like a ghost, each face disappears as soon as he sees it. He then moves on to the next face. 

He compares the succession of faces with the petals on a "wet, black bough." Note that the comma after "wet" isolates the alliterative "black bough." The poem ends with this image and the alliteration emphasizes the image. The beauty of the petals is attached to a black bough (branch). The beauty of the petals is juxtaposed to the bleakness of the "black bough" and this is perhaps a comparison with the beautiful faces coming out of the dark subway. 

What is auditory awareness?

Auditory awareness describes a person's ability to perceive and make sense of what's going on around them through sound. When sound waves hit the ear, these vibrations are communicated to and translated by the brain. An important part of auditory processing is the ability to discriminate between different kinds of sounds in terms of direction, volume, and pattern. Someone who has an auditory processing disorder or is otherwise overwhelmed in their sense of hearing may experience lower auditory awareness because they have a hard time interpreting the sensory stimuli received. 

Our sense of auditory awareness helps us to understand and navigate the world we live in. One of the most important parts of auditory awareness is the part it plays in helping us understand the position of our bodies in relation to other objects. Particularly when something is going on behind us, and therefore out of sight, our sense of hearing can help to "fill in the blanks." 

How did America’s desire to make Japan an ally lead to the ANZUS Treaty?

Australia and New Zealand were very concerned about defense and security after World War II.  Communism was 'winning' in many countries of East Asia.  The United States seemed to focus on securing Europe and West Germany more than it was with interests in the Pacific.  Japan, in the eyes of Australia and New Zealand, was a threat to their interests and security.  The island nation of Japan had previously launched a campaign of aggression in the region and had bombed Australia.  For this reason, Australia and New Zealand were not completely in agreement with the conciliatory tone being presented by the United States towards Japan.  The United States, on the other hand, saw Japan as a potential ally in the fight against communism in the East and wanted to rebuild it with a Western-style government and economy.  To ease the fears of Australia and New Zealand after the United States ended its occupation of Japan in 1952, formal talks were held to establish a security alliance between the three countries.  

How are men affected by smoking?

History of Smoking

Tobacco smoking is one of the most ancient, globally prevalent, and enduring practices in the history of substance abuse. Historians have found evidence of the activity dating to 500 bce. In the annals of European and Western cultures, smoking has been a long established habit of boys and men especially. Not until the invention and swift proliferation of the cigarette at the turn of the twentieth century did tobacco smoking became prevalent among both men and women.

The practice of tobacco smoking has been perceived in many ways, including as religious custom and potential health benefit to herbal remedy, relaxant, and energy booster. Only relatively recently has medical evidence shown the dangers of tobacco smoking. This has led to monumental cultural changes that have placed restrictions on a practice that was an epidemic in American culture for more than a century.

It is now widely known and accepted that tobacco smoking causes damage to nearly every system of the body. Investigations into the numerous and varied health hazards of tobacco smoking have yielded evidence that illustrates how the practice affects men and women differently.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 443,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related conditions and from the effects of secondhand smoke. This figure represents more fatalities than are caused by illegal drugs, alcohol, motor vehicle accidents, human immunodeficiency virus infection, suicides, and homicides combined. CDC data also indicate that smoking triples the risk of heart disease in middle-aged men and increases the risk of acquiring lung cancer more than twenty-two times that of nonsmokers.

Statistics from the American Lung Association (ALA) indicate that smoking among men decreased 11 percent between the years 1965 and 2009. ALA figures also indicate that more than 25 million American men still smoke, a number that represents 25.3 percent of the adult male population of the United States.

Smoking: Introduction and Prevalence

Research shows that men and women start smoking for different reasons. Even though smoking has been an acceptable behavior for both adult men and women in the United States for decades, the ritual is, because of cultural beliefs, societal attitudes, popular media, and advertising, still associated with masculinity and machismo. This is perhaps the underlying cause of the tendency of men to experiment with or start smoking in their teenage years: They attempt to model or construct a masculine image.

Research indicates that men begin smoking at an average age of sixteen years, whereas women do not usually start until the age of nineteen years. As with any experimentation with potentially abusive substances, peer pressure is a major reason boys and young men begin smoking in their teenage years. Many male youths do not want to appear averse to risk-taking, which can result in smoking for social support and affirmation. The acceptance and camaraderie young smokers receive from other young smokers can be more rewarding than tobacco itself. The process of obtaining and learning to use tobacco also can be construed as a risky and therefore thrilling prospect to many teenage boys.

Parental, familial, and communal influences also affect a boy’s decision to begin smoking at a young age. Children whose parents smoke grow up to presume that the practice is acceptable if adult behavior; children of smokers also grow up to suffer negative effects from early exposure to secondhand smoke. Newer research on substance abuse also has revealed that nicotine addiction may be linked to genetic disposition. Having parents who smoke also can make boys erroneously skeptical of cultural attitudes, advertising, and public health information that tries to warn youths of the dangers of smoking.

Short-term Health Dangers

The long-term effects of tobacco smoking are widely known. However, tobacco smoking also causes an array of immediate psychological and health effects, even with occasional or sporadic use. Many of these effects, which occur in both men and women, include increased stress levels from cellular manipulation to dopamine receptors. Abnormal tightening of airways results in shortness of breath and increased phlegm production that result in persistent bouts of coughing. All of these factors combine to decrease overall physical performance and well-being.

The damage a single cigarette or exposure to secondhand smoke causes to the cardiovascular system is also significant. Smoking dilates blood vessels, resulting in a reduction of blood supply throughout the body. In addition to an increased heart rate while ingesting smoke, smokers also have a higher resting heartbeat than do nonsmokers.

Smoking also can cause negative effects to a person’s teeth, stomach, and digestive system. Changes in blood supply slow immune responses responsible for preventing periodontal infection. Excess mucous production in the lungs and stomach, a result of the body’s attempt to cast out harmful toxins from smoke, also can lead to gastroesophageal reflux disease and peptic ulcers. Tobacco smoking also interferes with the body’s absorption of key minerals, enzymes, and micronutrients such as vitamins A, C, and E, all of which are necessary to maintain health.

Long-term Health Dangers

The body’s short-term reaction to tobacco smoking and the litany of health complications surrounding even occasional exposure to or use of tobacco persist in habitual smokers. What results is a constant struggle by the body to return to a nonsmoking state, a struggle made more difficult because of the numerous degenerative effects of the toxins found in tobacco smoke.

In men, the restriction of blood vessels resulting from long-term use of or exposure to tobacco smoke can result in erectile dysfunction, sperm damage, and impotence. Newer evidence also suggests that long-term exposure to the toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke can result in genetic mutations to the sperm that increase the risk of birth defects and cancer in the future children of smokers.

While lung cancer and emphysema are the most widely known potentially fatal diseases associated with smoking, heart disease remains the leading cause of death among smokers in the United States. Furthermore, estimates predict that more than one billion people will die from tobacco use in the twenty-first century.

The widespread legislative and cultural changes in developed countries such as the United States have made the dangers of smoking more evident than any previous time. The new health campaigns and changing cultural attitudes toward tobacco smoking are perhaps the biggest reason that the percentage of male smokers older than age eighteen years in the United States has gone from 52 percent in 1965 to just 26 percent in 1999, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The tobacco epidemic, however, will continue to take its toll in such nations as China, where the health risks are less known and smoking remains a widely accepted practice among men. WHO estimates that more than 300 million Chinese men are smokers, a number of people equal to the entire population of the United States.

Bibliography

American Lung Association. “Trends in Tobacco Use.” Jul. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. http://www.lung.org/finding-cures/our-research/trend-reports/Tobacco-Trend-Report.pdf.

Gately, Iain. Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization. New York: Grove, 2003.

Herrick, Charles. 100 Questions and Answers about How to Quit Smoking. Sudbury, MA: Jones, 2009.

Rabinoff, Michael. Ending the Tobacco Holocaust. Fulton: Elite, 2010.

“Smoking’s Immediate Effects on the Body.” 17 Sep. 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0264.pdf.

Zang, Edith A., and Ernst L. Wynder. “Difference in Lung Cancer Risk Between Men and Women: Examination of the Evidence.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 88 (1996). Web. 30 Apr. 2012. http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/88/3-4/183.abstract.